Second Best
by katdemon1895
Summary: What do you do when you know you're just the second choice, when you know that you're really just second best? warning: character death


I don't own Naruto, if I did then Sasuke would be less of a jerk, please read and review

She felt his weight shift and remained completely still as she waited for him to leave. Then she slowly opened her eyes and looked at the calendar and frowned.

It was the same every year since they had been married. Every year he would leave early and disappear for the whole day and no one would tell her where he was. She knew that he didn't have a mission. The Rokudaime seemed to do everything he could to avoid giving certain people a mission on this day. It was like some sort of secret holiday.

She took a deep breath and then quickly wrote a note and left the room. This time she would know what he was up to. She would not put up with secrets like this any longer.

With an amount of stealth she had never know she possessed, she followed her husband and watched as he met Ino Yamanaka in front of the flower shop. She felt a bitter vein of jealousy rush through her as the blonde, still as beautiful as ever despite three children and a number of years, handed her husband a bouquet of flowers. A few moments later, Ino's husband came out of the flower shop, another bouquet in his arms.

They left together and she trailed behind them, taking care not to be caught. They stopped at the Nara household and out came Shikamaru and his wife from Sand. Temari, if she remembered right. They little group continued to travel together before being joined by the Rokudaime himself, and his demure wife, Hinata. A man with bowl cut black hair dressed entirely in green came up to the group and said something to her husband. She wondered why they were all holding flowers and what they were all doing when another pair of people joined them, Neji and Tenten Hyuga.

She continued to follow the group of people, known through out the village as the strongest in all Konoha. Kakashi Hatake and the fifth Hokage joined them as they walked further.

Then they stopped in front of a small stone and she watched as her husband cleared away the wilted flowers and lit a stick of incense. Then he placed his flowers in front of it and stood back as the others did the same. She watched as her husband let tears course down his face. They all stood there a little while longer and she silently slipped away to return home.

When her husband returned late that night, his eyes slightly red, she said nothing. She just handed him his dinner and they ate silently, their six children watching them curiously. She had stumbled into their room, her room really since he hadn't touched her after their last child, and gasped slightly as her breath left her. She fumbled through her dresser before coming up with the pills that the fifth had prescribed. She gulped a few and sighed in relief as the pains left her. She opened her eyes and they filled with resolve. This could not go on any longer.

The next day it was her turn to disappear from the bedroom early that morning. She snuck past all the early morning shoppers and then finally found the place that her husband and his friends had visited the day before. She stared at the stone marker and shock raced through her body as she looked at the name engraved on it

_Haruno Sakura_

A bitter laugh came from her throat as the pieces finally clicked together. Everyone knew of the brave kunoichi who had died in order to banish Orochimaru's soul forever. Everyone knew of the apprentice of the fifth who had sacrificed herself to save Konoha. She was a legend, her name whispered in revered tones just like the Fourth. There had even been an argument whether or not her face should be added to the mountain.

"It would be you, wouldn't it?" she said, her voice cracking slightly. "I always knew there was someone else. But I had never expected that someone to be dead." She starred at the seemingly innocent stone marker with its beautiful floral decorations. She cleared her throat slightly,

"He loved you, I'm sure you know by now. We named our first daughter after you, she even has green eyes, just like you." She blinked back the tears that were forming in her own green eyes, "You know, I think that's why he married me, because I have eyes like yours." There was a strange silence and she felt the need to continue speaking, "He's never loved me." She blurted out and then her face turned slightly pink. "I mean, I know we did it enough for six kids, but you know how he is when he has a mission. He'll do whatever it takes." She took a deep breath, "I had always thought that maybe one day he would love me, that he would forget the woman who he would dream about, but I guess I never stood a chance. Somehow, I think I've always know that." She knelt before the grave and put her hand to the name with a frown.

"You know, the marker's wrong." She whispered and let chakra course into her hand. It caused her fingertips to glow and she slowly scraped her fingers across the name, completely erasing it from existence. She felt her chakra waver and panted slightly. She had never had much chakra. It had always been eaten away by a disease she had since she was very small. She searched for the last remnants of her energy and scratched something else into the stone. Then she smiled, knowing that by doing this, she was over reaching herself.

"I know what I'm doing is probably selfish." She whispered to the stone, "But it's okay, I'm dying anyway. At least this way, I can change a mistake before I leave." With that the woman known as Uchiha Midoriko, wife of Uchiha Sasuke and mother of six, died from overusing her chakra. She was found later that day, a peaceful smile on her face as she lay before the gravestone which now read,

_Uchiha Sakura_

This was considerably different from what I usually write, please review and tell me how I did


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